Chapter 10 (Only skipped 9 because I messed up. This one is actually 10)
Thanks for telling me what an AMV was! I think about it now and am a little sad I couldn't figure it out...Anyway next chapter!
When Mai saw Gene she was both happy and angry. If she saw him now it meant she had fallen asleep. She tried to gather the anger to glare at Gene but couldn't find it in her.
"Why didn't you tell me you weren't Naru!? And also that you were dead so I wouldn't go into that discussion with Naru!" Mai tried to shout at him but seeing him smile made her smile andf that caused it to become some kind of laugh.
"I did tell you sort of, I asked you if you were sure of my identity and I never confirmed that I was Naru," He smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. Mai rolled her eyes and then directed her attention at the shifting images before her.
There was the room they were in now, only it was daytime and the furniture were all different. In the center of the room was an old man, and a young pair of twins. The man held his hand up like he was going to strike one of the children. Mai's hearty froze, the little kids looked so scared, the smaller of the kids, which Mai confirmed was a girl was holding back sobs and the other, the boy, was ready to take the hit.
Mai looked at Gene who was looking at her as if to gauge her reaction, he noticed that Mai's eyes were welling up and her face was lightly flushed. Gene turned back to the image and it sped through the number of times the poor children were struck and flogged with the old man's belt. It continued until they were in their teens, then the old man stopped appearing.
"I'm not sure which one it is, but all three of them died in this house and any one or all of them could be haunting it." Gene said as Mai returned to her consciousness, "Tell Noll I'll be in touch." Gene smiled and Mai waved goodbye just before she opened her eyes.
When Mai woke up she found that she wasn't on Naru's shoulder. Weather she was relieved or sad about that was a mystery. Either way, he sat several inches away from her fiddling with some kind of ball he found.
"How long was I out?" Mai mumbled stretching as she sat up, Naru stopped playing with the ball and turned to her. He could barely see her profile in the darkness. Slowly her image became clearer and clearer in the dark, it was lighting up from the corner of the room.
They both looked in time to see the ghost go from a dim light splotch to a clear white figure. Naru stood up pulling Mai by the arm to her feet as well, when did he grab her arm? They both stood shoulders touching in the darkness waiting for the figure to do something.
Mai's ankle was pulled out from under her and she screamed, Naru grabbed her underarms and pulled against it, there was a point in the struggle where Mai began sympathizing with a tug of war rope. Finally the figure dropped Mai's ankle and Mai fell backwards onto Naru who was still holding her protectively.
"You are very naughty children," The ghost spat and Mai clued in to the fact it was the old man. She scrambled backward as the man raised his pasty white hand and prepared to strike, Naru however wouldn't let the ghost touch her. He held his own wrist out in time to block the ghost's slap.
Naru was left with a glowing red burn on his wrist and Mai heard it sizzle through his shirt sleeve and hiss as it hit his skin. He cried out in pain but stayed strong all the same.
"very bad children." The man spat again as he faded back into nothingness. Then the door swung open and John and Masako stood in the frame with worried looks on their pale faces. Topher stirred in the corner as well and slowly sat up rubbing his head. Mai blinked at the sudden light filling the room and Naru simply stayed quiet holding her to him.
Back at base Ayako wrapped Naru's wrist and examined Topher's head injury. With nothing too serious she gave him her opinion and still recommended he go to a hospital much to Naru's obvious happiness. Mai sat quietly on the couch telling Lin and Madoka what she had dreamed and what Gene had said.
"Mai, did you fall or hurt your neck in anyway?" Madoka asked lifting the top of Mai's sleeve to further examine whatever she was looking at, Lin too seemed worried about whatever this was. Mai looked at the confusion clear in her eyes and then she glanced down at her neck to see, a swelling black bruise. She was suddenly very alarmed as she shook her head and reached up to touch the mark. Lin grabbed her wrist before she could and shook his head slightly. Mai put her hand back down and looked at Ayako who had now come over to see what was the matter.
"It looks like the ghost did this to you, the same marks were found on the children who live here." Ayako said quietly and Mai panicked yet again. Why was it always her the ghosts hated?
Naru now was looking at the mark that mysteriously appeared on the side of her neck. He like Mai, went to touch the mark but Lin swatted his hand away even more harshly than he had grabbed Mai's wrist.
"Why does everyone want to touch it?" Madoka asked quietly, and though it was a serious matter and everyone was quite worried, the whole room laughed. Lin and Naru smiled a bit and Madoka turned red as Lin pulled her into his arms. Mai smiled the brightest, they were good for each other. Too much tension was a very bad thing and with Madoka and Monk the tension was almost always taken away.
Mai slept in base on the couch because she was too afraid to leave Naru's side. He had taken the strike for her and was noticeably irritated by the bun on his right arm. She could tell by the way he glanced at it or slammed it a little too hard into the keyboard he was sitting at.
Mai suddenly remembered what Gene had said for her to tell him. "Gene told me to tell you he'll be in touch or something." Mai yawned, and Naru spun in his chair looking at her wide eyed. He suddenly stood up and scrambled around the room for something. His sudden awakeness had woken Mai up somewhat as well.
"What are we looking for?" She asked, standing up and walking toward the desk where the monitors had been set up. Naru was pulling out drawers and sliding his hand along under the couch.
"A mirror," He said looking in a cupboard she was surprised he could reach, when she looked at his feet she saw he was on his tip toes. It almost made her giggle. She reached into her purse and pulled out a little pocket mirror that Ayako had bought her after the bloodstained labyrinth case.
She handed it to Naru who then sat on the couch looking into it. He stared at the mirror in silence waiting for something to happen. Mai was about to ask him what he was doing when his reflection did something he didn't.
Naru's reflection smiled. Mai gasped. Gene? Naru sighed when he saw his brother appear in the mirror.
"Hello Noll, Mai, how are you two doing?" He asked politely his accent clearly visible in his Japanese. Naru looked at him still clearly surprised that his idea had worked.
"what are we supposed to do to get rid of the ghost, and the mark on Mai's neck." Naru asked scratching violently at his bandaged arm, why was it flaring up all of the sudden? Gene looked confused
"Has exorcising it not worked?" He asked furrowing his eyebrow. Naru nodded, he remembered the pale exhausted look on Masako and john's faces when they opened the door, and how Lin had explained that they had been trying to exorcise the one ghost for over three hours.
"The mark on Mai's neck, is it the same one on yours?" Gene asked and Naru frowned. There was nothing on his neck that he remembered. He looked down at his neck to see the edges of a massive black and blue bruise. He reached up and touched it gently. Then his arm had a searing hot pain shoot through it and he felt some kind of current go through his arm into the bruise on his neck, and to his surprise the bruise grew.
Mai shrieked and nearly fell off the couch when Naru pulled her back to her spot with one swift tug. She mumbled her thanks and stared at his bruise through the corner of her eye.
"Eww, um...alright don't touch the mark anymore and don't let atone else who may have it touch it." Gene said grimacing at the mark on his brother's neck, he looked at Mai with stern eyes when he said the last part and Mai went red. Its bad enough to have Naru constantly watch her.
Mai rolled her eyes and Gene faded away. Naru set the mirror on Mai's lap and Lin walked into the room. He was clearly tired and almost walked into the table but sat down at the desk anyway.
"Are you alright Lin?" Mai asked as she put the mirror back in her bag. Lin nodded and grunted some kind of answer and then seemed to nod off against his hand. Naru stood and walked to him, Lin was oblivious. Naru pulled up a string of his hair and waved a hand in front of his face. Lin didn't even blink.
Naru walked down the hall to Lin and Madoka's room and woke her up.
"Madoka, Lin is half asleep in base. I don't think he should be up right now with his lack of sleep." Naru sighed as Madoka woke up and dragged Lin back in, he protested but fell asleep too quickly for him to remember anything.
Naru then walked back out into the hallway when his arm flared up again this time in pain rather than itchiness. He winced but made no sound, eventually the pain came to a point where he collapsed and was hopelessly paralyzed. He was about to pass out when he saw two pairs of feet in front of him.
"Ids he one of twins?" One of them asked and the other must have answered silently because Naru was grabbed at the wrists and ankles and carried away into the darkness.
In the morning Lin was the first one up and immediately asked where Naru was, Mai was too sleepy to notice he wasn't there.
"Is he in the washroom?" Mai asked wiping her eyes. Monk and Ayako also entered the room, they were quiet. Ayako told Monk something at a quiet volume they didn't even know Ayako had.
Monk nodded at whatever she had said and turned to show them his back, he then lifted his shirt revealing dark whip lines, crisscrossing over him. Mai felt her throat close up and she noticed tears rolling down her face.
"Naru's been taken." Lin said after watching the video feed from the last night. They all rushed over to the monitors except Monk who moved rather slow. On the screen stood two teenagers about Naru's age, maybe older. A girl and a boy. Mai recognized them as the set of twins who lived here.
The girl had fine silky purplish hair while the boy had a vibrant orange. They were hand in hand and the boy seemed to do all the talking. They struggled to hear what he was saying but the audio must have been severed because it was perfect silence. They watched as Naru made no effort to defend himself and made no sound as he was silently carried down the hall and into a door they'd never noticed.
That was probably a confusing chapter. I kinda bounced around the different topics I had. The gene in the mirror part I think I got from someone elses fanfic that I read so figure out who it was and give them credit on their good idea. If it is an actual thing where Gene can communicate through mirrors than great! I just watched like half of SAO and it was amazing! I must go watch the other half. REVIEW!